MNIST Dataset (MNIST_dataset)

Overview

This DeepTrackAI repository provides a copy of the MNIST dataset, a benchmark collection of handwritten digits originally created by Yann LeCun, Corinna Cortes, and Christopher J.C. Burges, originally available from the Official MNIST Website.

Each image is a grayscale depiction of a digit from 0 to 9, with an associated label. MNIST is one of the most widely used datasets for training and evaluating machine learning and deep learning models in computer vision.

Summary

• Number of images: 70,000 (60,000 training, 10,000 test)
• Image size: 28 × 28 pixels
• Image format: 8-bit grayscale PNG
• Labels: 10 classes (digits 0–9)

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Original Source

• Title: The MNIST Database of Handwritten Digits
• Authors: Yann LeCun, Corinna Cortes, Christopher J.C. Burges
• Source: Official MNIST Website
• Reference article: LeCun, Y., Bottou, L., Bengio, Y., & Haffner, P. Proceedings of the IEEE 86(11): 2278-2324 (1998). DOI: 10.1109/5.726791
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• Note: The original MNIST website is no longer actively maintained. An archived version is available, and the dataset is widely mirrored (e.g., on Kaggle).

If you use this dataset in your research, please follow the licensing requirements and properly attribute the original authors.

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Dataset Structure

/MNIST_dataset
└── mnist/
    ├── train/          # Training images (labeled by filename)
    │   ├── 0_000000.png
    │   ├── 0_000001.png
    │   └── ...
    └── test/           # Test images (labeled by filename)
        ├── 0_000000.png
        ├── 0_000001.png
        └── ...

Each filename begins with its class label (0–9), followed by a sequential numerical identifier.

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How to Access the Data

Clone the Repository

git clone github.com/DeepTrackAI/MNIST_dataset
cd MNIST_dataset

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Attribution

If you use this dataset, please cite both the MNIST dataset and the reference article.

Cite the dataset:

LeCun Y, Cortes C, Burges CJC. The MNIST Database of Handwritten Digits. Retrieved from yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/

@misc{lecun1998mnist,
  title        = {The MNIST Database of Handwritten Digits},
  author       = {LeCun, Yann and Cortes, Corinna and Burges, Christopher J.C.},
  year         = {1998},
  howpublished = {\url{http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/}}
}

Cite the reference article:

LeCun Y, Bottou L, Bengio Y, Haffner P. Gradient-based learning applied to document recognition. Proceedings of the IEEE, 86(11): 2278–2324 (1998). DOI: 10.1109/5.726791

@article{lecun1998gradient,
  title     = {Gradient-based learning applied to document recognition},
  author    = {LeCun, Yann and Bottou, L{\'e}on and Bengio, Yoshua and Haffner, Patrick},
  journal   = {Proceedings of the IEEE},
  volume    = {86},
  number    = {11},
  pages     = {2278--2324},
  year      = {1998},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  doi       = {10.1109/5.726791}
}

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License

This replication dataset is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) License, consistent with the original licensing terms.